


The best Christmas ever

by Raspberries_Heartbeat



Category: The Book of Mormon - Parker/Stone/Lopez
Genre: Christmas, First Kiss, Fluff, M/M, Making things up again Arnold, Short & Sweet, The Book of Mormon - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-24
Updated: 2017-12-24
Packaged: 2019-02-19 18:05:29
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,129
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13129056
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Raspberries_Heartbeat/pseuds/Raspberries_Heartbeat
Summary: The very first Christmas the Elders celebrate in Africa.Arnold is making things up again, but that's alright; and Kevin gets the best Christmas present.





	The best Christmas ever

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first ever Book of Mormon fanfiction. I love, love, love the musical, but didn't really read any fan works, so please be so kind and ignore possible canon errors.
> 
> Done as a Christmas present for my favourite Musical maniac

Joseph Smith didn’t write anything about Christmas particular. It wasn’t for the fact that he didn’t care about the holiday whatsoever, maybe he just didn’t feel the need to spell out the fact that Christmas was AWESOME.

Maybe it was better like that, Elder Price mused while he got ready for another day on his heavenly mission. If there’s nothing about it in the Book of Mormon, at least he wouldn’t have to ignore so many facts that were twisted by Elder Cunningham. His self-declared best friend didn’t really stick to the protocol, but his methods worked for the Africans, and that was, after all, everything that mattered at the end of the day. Things were going pretty decent, although Uganda wasn’t Orlando and would never come near. But he had learned a thing or two about the significance of belief, about teamwork, about the happiness in simple things, about himself.  He would even go as far to say that he was happy to be there, happy to be part of this new and different understanding of religion.

Their mission had been a complete (if inconvenient) success so far, and it would be the first Christmas they were celebrating in Africa. Elder Price doubted that the villagers ever heard of Christmas before, but he left it to Elder Cunningham to break the news. His quirky friend was remarkable when it came to convey a certain sense of emotion. What did it matter that the things he actually said consisted of 50% LOTR lore and 50% bullshit? Whatever it was, he’d roll with it.

Christmastime always caught him in a giddy and festive mood, this year was no exception. Although, he might admit, it took a bit of determination to get all festive when the sun was blasting at an average temperature of 40 degrees and Christmas cookies were nothing more than a distant fantasy. Or pine trees. Or fairy lights. Or Christmas carols. Or… anything remotely Christmas-y.

Still. Christmas spirit was a state of mind!

***

As he was strolling around the village with no real aim, he found his mission brother discussing heavily with some villagers. To come to his aid, he approached faster, silently hoping his friend didn’t cause severe shenanigans. You never know with Arnold Cunningham.

When he arrived in earshot, he silently sighed in relief, when he heard that Elder Cunningham was merely explaining Christmas logistics to the baffled Africans.

“No, I’m telling you, he has a sleigh, with reindeers and everything, and with this sleigh he gets the presents around the world and-“

“That doesn’t make sense! How can he be so fast?”

“How does he know where to go?” “Where did he get all the money to buy the presents?!”

“Well-“ the elder looked around sheepishly, relived when he saw his friend approaching. “He…. Has a contract with Coca Cola and Antarctica… he makes the presents”

“What about the copyright?”

“He is Santa, Santa doesn’t need copyright”

“Making things up again, Arnold?” Elder Price murmured amused in his friend’s ear, who only gave him a sly grin.

“I’m trying. The concept of giving each other presents on a random occasion just because some dude who was probably God’s son was born some thousand years ago doesn’t really make sense to them”

Elder Price opened his mouth to say something, but closed it again with a click. Actually, if you put it that way, it was pretty darn stupid. But that wasn’t what Christmas was _about_.

“It’s not so much about the presents or who gets the presents where. It’s about doing nice things for each other”

“Do you seriously need a holiday for that in America?” Some villagers snickered quietly.

 “No! Yes, listen, Christmas is just important okay? It’s special!”

“If it’s important to our Elders” Nabulungi stepped in, “it should be important for us, too”

 “THANK you”

Elder Cunningham smiled approvingly at her. Elder Price couldn’t help but notice a sort of fondness between them. They seemed closer, and come to think of it, his mission brother now spent almost all his free time with the African girl. Which was, fine, of course. He, after all, tried to befriend the other elders, as well. They were useless at their best of days, but nice fellows in the depths of their hearts. Only yesterday, Elder McKinley took him on a walk around the area and it was actually- he stopped himself right there, for there was a small warm stirring in his stomach at the thought of his fellow Mormon missionary. He chose to ignore it, for the time being.

“We should celebrate it” Elder Cunningham said suddenly. “All of us, I mean. Together”

“But we still didn’t quite solve the copyright issue-“

“Not like that. Just, I don’t know, do some nice things, and cook a nice meal, and decorate the village oh, we could do Secret Santa!” he turned to his mission brother, excitedly. It was quite hard to say “no” to this amount of excitement. “If you’re sure….”

The younger man cheered, before he set to action to explain the, admittedly complicated, rules of a Secret Santa exchange to the villagers. However, they didn’t really see the sense in buying (or making, for that matter) for another person in secret, because then you couldn’t be sure whether they would like the present or not. Elder Price was spacing out during the discussion, he didn’t particularly care for Secret Santa gifts, he was more concerned with the lack of Christmas cookies and fairy lights at their Christmas party. It somehow felt less exciting that way.

In the end, they decided that everyone would buy a present for themselves (to guarantee the happiness out of the action). Elder Price didn’t have the heart to point out that this would kind of convey the purpose of giving presents at all. Nabulungi eagerly volunteered for cooking duty, and Elder Cunningham shily offered to help her, which in turn made her even more eager. Elder Price promised to get the other elders to decorate the village a little bit to set up the right spirit.

***

It was the afternoon before Christmas eve, everyone buzzed in an anticipating excitement. Although the villagers still weren’t on board with the whole Christmas idea, the prospect of having a nice gettogether with good food was never turned down.

The other elders, admittedly, did a good job. They crafted some empty Coke cans (after Elder Cunningham mentioned the connection between Santa Clause and the Coca Cola Company, it only seemed appropriate) into wonky snowman figurines, collected red berries and put them on strings around the doorframes, already collected enough wood for a roaring bonfire, and got an unknown tree (maybe it was poisonous, who could tell?) that had remotely similarity with a pine set up. They had been crafting weird Christmas ornaments out of anything they could fine all morning. Elder Price couldn’t help but feel proud of his missionary brothers. And the villagers as well, now that he thought about it.  It had been the first time all of them worked together to achieve a greater goal they all looked forward to. Finally, it felt a little bit more like Christmas.

He stood at the edge of the hearth were they later that evening would start the bonfire and just admired the familiarity and strangeness of it all. It was… weird. It was… quirky. But it was also so… appropriate to everything he experienced in his months here. Once again, a sense of happiness settled within him. Like he was actually doing good on his mission. Like it was worth something.

“Lost in thought, huh?”, a voice from behind him pulled him out of his musings. Elder McKinley stood there, looking nothing short of sheepish, and offered him something that had remotely similarity to a candy cane. Upon closer inspection, it had looked more like sweet potato stick, but Elder Price chose to ignore the details. It was the thought that counted, and it had been a very nice thought indeed. So, he took the sugared potato stick and thanked his missionary brother.

“It’s not quite peppermint, but close enough” the other elder added, still looking all sheepishly. “Thank you”

They snaked in silence for some minutes. There was that funny warmth in Elder Price’s stomach again, which seemed to settle quite often upon him when Elder McKinley was near. Or the thoughts about said Elder in the darkness of the night. It was such a particular feeling, he hadn’t ever felt like this before. He sort of knew what it could mean, but never really given a thought about it. Before he left for Africa, he never gave a second thought about his sexuality- in all honesty, he didn’t much care about anything besides the Book of Mormon- since heavenly father seemed to be approving of heterosexuality more than homosexuality. In more honesty, tho, he never found any passages in the book indicating this fact, and now, many miles away from home, he couldn’t help but feel that maybe the ideals he had held dear for almost all his life jut weren’t so ideal anymore. Of course, he could just turn it off. But somehow… he just didn’t want to. The other elder made him… happy in a way only the thoughts about Orlando had made him before and-

“It’ll be dark soon. We should start the fire”

“Excellent thinking, Elder McKinley”

“Please” the other man started, while he searched for some matches. “It’s Connor”

“Oh, alright then” Elder Price held out his hand with a big toothy grin. “I’m Kevin. Nice to meet you, Connor!”

Connor gave him a ‘are you joking, you goof’ look, but shook the offered hand anyway.

“The pleasure is all mine” Kevin flushed bright pink at the compliment, and busied himself with lighting small twigs on fire.

Not twenty minutes later, they had a nice fire roaring. It crackled softly and lit the darkening market place in a warm glow. It wasn’t fairy lights, but it was magical nonetheless.

“It finally feels like Christmas” Kevin sighed, the sense of festivity at last setting within him. “Isn’t it beautiful?” he turned, to share this moment with his friend, only to discover that he was not watching the bonfire at all. He was watching him.  

“Yeah…it is” Somehow, it didn’t feel like Connor was talking about the fire anymore. They made eye contact for some intense seconds, before Kevin finally turned away, because his heart felt like it was ready to jump out of his throat. It was this special kind of happiness, only the other elder could evoke in him. He had never felt like this before, but it was _great_.

“I..uhm.. I gotta be honest with you here. I’ve been having gay thoughts again” Kevin shot Connor a shy glance, who was, in turn, smiling at him.

His stomach made a funny churn. “Oh?”

“I… don’t really want to turn them off this time…”

“Oh”

 They gravitated towards each other, closer than before, until they were almost near enough to hug or to…to kiss.

Connor reached out, as if to touch the others’ jaw, but stopped himself mid-air.

“Alright?” asked tentatively. Kevin could only nod, words were suddenly failing him. This was new, and a little bit scary, but also so _exciting_!

There was a certain twinkle in Connor’s eyes that made Kevin’s knees go all weak and wobbly. A simple touch shouldn’t feel this _good_ , but damn well it did.

“I’ve got a Christmas present for you. It’s rather… personal” Kevin was feeling hot all over and it certainly had nothing to do with the fire net to him. Before he had the chance to show any kind of reaction, the other elder had captured him in a sweet kiss, which tasted of sweet potato and sugar.

Something exploded.

Literarily and figuratively.

Arnold must have set something on fire while cooking. For all that it was worth, Kevin didn’t care. Not when he was being kissed like _that_ , by the person he happened to like _very much_ , consequences be dammed. “Oh, wow” he uttered when they finally parted.

“Sooooo you like it?” Well, _obviously_.

Kevin, regaining some degree of his bubbly exterior, cheerily entwined their fingers. “This” he declared, “is the best Christmas ever!”

***

Later that evening, when all of them sat around the fire, eating delicious African stew and singing songs they were all familiar with, Kevin felt that sense of peace come over him again. It felt like… home.

As he cuddled against Connor’s chest, drawing lazy circles on the other’s arms, while he listened to the silly story Arnold was telling them, all he could think about was that this, definitely, was the best Christmas ever.

 

 

 

 


End file.
